This six-day research project examined the potential for how trade books and primary sources can be used in concert with each other to develop middle school students' disciplinary thinking skills in the manners advocated for in the C3 Framework. The project was focused on the trade book "Thurgood," a picture book biography about Supreme…

This article explores how middle school students envision their communities through an in-depth community mapping project. The research explores the extent of students' sense of their community while prompting them to define what community means and whether it is valued by students. The project also seeks to understand students' sense of belonging…

The American Civil Rights Movement has often been misrepresented in textbooks, children's literature, and other curricular materials. With knowledge of the ongoing curricular distortion around Black history in P-12 curricula in mind, this article explores how a commonly used social studies curriculum, "Studies Weekly"®, represents the…

Southern United States folk music is rich in not only sound, but in voices of the past. Folk songs were created by working class individuals who described aspects of their life in connection with societal issues and events. Folk songs, now digitally archived, can serve as primary historical sources that can be used to enhance the secondary social…

Teachers value students' close reading of and text-based writing about diverse texts while eliciting their awareness of the world, privilege, and power. Carefully selected literature coupled with primary sources can bridge the classroom and society. To engage modern students in America's racialized past and present, this article guides teachers to…

The main goal in this study was to explore the impact of a professional learning community (PLC) on social studies (SS) teachers' professional development (PD) and student academic achievement. With this in mind, the study was carried out using a design-based research approach with an overarching ADDIE design model. The participants of the study…

This qualitative case study explored an eighth-grade social studies classroom where the teacher uses StudyCasts as an instructional strategy with his students. Teacher-led StudyCasts were utilized as a way for his students to remember content for upcoming tests. Additionally, his students created their own StudyCasts in the classroom to review…

Participation in a classroom-based study provided Grade 4 students with multiple opportunities to develop their visual meaning-making skills and competences, as well as their aesthetic understanding of and critical thinking about multimodal ensembles. Intentionally-designed instruction during the multifaceted research included a variety of…

U.S. politics has been primarily focused on the exploration of presidential power. People have engaged in traditional Master Narratives with the examination of U.S. Presidents where their actions are elevated and the catalysts for seismic societal changes. What is not examined in as much detail is legislative power wielded by members of the House…

Discussions on immigration in the social studies classroom have often focused on the political ideologies that frame the debate. Often, the religious and ethical frameworks surrounding immigration are often overlooked. This article provides a rationale for exploring the teachings of the Christian scriptures in relation to immigration, particularly…

This article addresses the teaching of disability history, specifically concerning the historical figure of Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR). Drawing upon literature from multicultural education, disability history and disability studies in education (DSE), the authors discuss historical content and teaching ideas for instruction about FDR. The…

In this article, the authors discuss how to explore the agency of ordinary citizens using local institutions to combat Jim Crow segregation laws during Freedom Summer. Primary sources from Miami (OH) University website about Freedom Summer and Susan Goldman Rubin's trade book ground the inquiry. Through the series of activities discussed, middle…

Meaningful source work is at the heart of social studies learning, but often a tall order for elementary-aged students. In this article, the authors describe the construction and implementation of a fifth grade inquiry on the Suffrage Movement using a focused version of the Inquiry Design Model (IDM) Blueprint. Using source analysis scaffolds…

The film-based practices of four social studies teachers were examined using a qualitative methodology. The research interviewed teachers twice over a 2-month period, collected handouts, and collected audio-recorded teacher logs. Three of the teachers taught social studies primarily, while a fourth teacher was responsible for both English and…